WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – It’s been four years since the Public Archeology Corps started their excavation project in a downtown Wilmington alley. Since then, they’ve found record of significant natural disasters, fragments from the Revolutionary War and evidence of what previously stood on the Front Street property.
The organization is a nonprofit, consisting of volunteers who spend every other Saturday at the site off Front St., digging for more history.
It’s work that Jon Schleier, PAC’s executive director, says is important – according to recent reports from the Nation’s Report Card, U.S. history and civics test scores are on the decline around the country.
“A good knowledge of history instructs us on what is going on today,” he said. “And I believe this is especially important considering historical literacy is at an all-time low.”
To date, the group has dug into remnants of the 1760s, finding the property used to be a riverside lot instead of being a block from the Cape Fear River like it is today, and found that a freed slave operated a bath house on the property during the 1840s.
Last weekend, the group discovered a mill stone, which could indicate the property used to serve as a gristmill.
And the more they dig, the more history they’ll uncover.
“A lot of the public, a lot of people, may not even know that there’s significant archaeological resources here in their neighborhoods,” Schleier said. “You get this idea that there’s only great archaeology in Egypt or Greece or places like this, but certainly not Wilmington, North Carolina.”
PAC’s goal is to address the issue of archaeological site loss on private land, Schleier said. They work with developers and landowners to salvage archaeology resources without costing the developers time or money.
The organization has steadily added members since its founding in 2013. Schleier says he’s been impressed with the group working on the Front St. site – and hopes to continue adding volunteers.
“The passion that they display is sometimes kind of humbling and awe-inspiring at the same time because these people want to dedicate so much of their personal time and energy for an idea that I came up with 11 years ago,” he said.
One of those dedicated volunteers is Alexander Clupper, an anthropology student at UNC Wilmington interested in archaeology. He says the opportunity to unearth history in Wilmington is a unique experience.
“History is not found in a library, especially in civilizations that didn’t keep records,” Clipper said. “So what we would do here is we would find information and put it together by hand. We’re the field workers of history.”
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